No seriously; hear me out. Ever since Brie Larson and Tessa Thompson started making waves on the social medias, there’s been a lot of hype around Marvel, or anyone, having an out-and-out gay hero. A decision I’m completely behind… But I’ve come to thinking:
“Why can’t it be Captain America or one of the other heavy hitters?”
I think we all need to realise that we live in a world where it‘s no longer a sin to be a homosexual, however this is rarely put at the forefront of the media we consume. It’s absolutely great that many more celebrities are coming out, and programmes such as Queer Eye and Ru Paul’s Drag Race are getting some huge limelight – It’s definitely time that a big hero – someone that millions of children can look up to – acts in a gay role and show that it’s fine to love whoever you want. I’m saying, however, that perhaps it shouldn’t be Captain Marvel and Valkyrie, who would essentially be an alien couple. There will be many basement dwellers who want this coupling for all the wrong reasons, just so they can jack off at the back of the cinema when they share their first on-screen kiss. And I’m betting that many who are behind it wouldn’t be so open to a Hawkeye / Falcon relationship, but maybe this is what we need. I’m not saying that it has to be Cap as that would mess with Endgame’s perfect ending, but perhaps it should be one of our main Avengers.
Why not make someone like the new Captain America our new gay hero? Someone who’s really awesome and comfortable with who they are, showing young kids that it’s ok to feel differently to your friends (He’s also shown us in Black Mirror that he can do those kinds of scenes well). Marvel KIND of did it by putting Joe Russo in the film and casually saying ‘he…’ when referring to a date; now this is definitely the correct way to do it, just talking about the date with a guy, but this scene was very brief and there was so much else to focus on that it could have been lost. I’m not saying that the Larson/Thompson hook up would be done for the wrong reasons, everything I’ve seen from these 2 screams equality, but I just think they’re not mainline enough AND they aren’t human – I wonder if the message would be lost a little, or misinterpreted.
It’s hard to nail the message being subtle whilst still being correct, for sure. We don’t want it to be in our face like Bucky turning around going “I’VE MET A MAN”, but also it can’t be too under the radar where it looks like a secret. It would be great to have a casual love story on screen like Stark/Potts, but with 2 men or women, where it’s just about the story and the struggle of getting or staying together with no focus on their genders.
I’m sure if anyone can do it right it will be Marvel as they’ve shown us so many times before, especially in something like Black Panther. I just don’t want this to be done the wrong way or not strongly enough as that would just stoke the rabid fans’ flames more.
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